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Monday, 28 December 2015

2016 Reading Challenges

Ah, what a glorious time of the year. The time where I compile lists and lists of texts I want to read in the following year knowing full well I'll completely fail every single one of them. I'm nothing if not optimistic (just kidding). I have limited the number of challenges I'm going to participate in this year and I've used the same titles for several challenges which might make completing them a little more manageable. I'm really looking forward to these challenges and I'm determined to complete at least a couple. So without further ado here are the challenges I'll be participating in during 2016:

I'm hosting this one and I think it's the one I'm most looking forward to. I fell in love with Sophocles last year, and Euripides this year and I can't wait to discover more of their work and the work of Aeschylus and Aristophanes as well. I'll be aiming to read around 30 Greek texts (mostly plays) in 2016. My rough list includes:

I am super excited about this challenge. I was kicking myself all year for not joining at the start of 2015 because it seemed like something I could actually achieve. I've taken inspiration from O and Cleo and instead of choosing 52 straight short stories I'm going to split it into four distinct categories: Hearts will be Fairy Tales/Fables, Diamonds will be Plays, Clubs will be Short Stories and Spades will be poetry. Here is my list:

Hearts: Fairy Tales/Fables♥

Ace: The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood by Charles Perrault and Little Briar Rose by the Brothers GrimmTwo: The Little Red Riding-Hood by Charles PerraultThree: Hansel and Gretel by the Brothers GrimmFour: Cinderella: or, The Little Glass Slipper by Charles Perrault and Cinderella by the Brothers GrimmFive: Beauty and the Beast by Jeanne-Marie LePrince de BeaumontSix: Snow White by the Brothers Grimm and The Tale of the Dead Princess and the Seven Knights by Aleksandr Pushkin

Seven: Aladdin and Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves by UnknownEight: The Little Mermaid by Hans Christian AndersenNine: Rumplestiltskin by the Brothers GrimmTen: Aesop's Fables by AesopJack: The Wild Swans by Hans Christian AndersenQueen: The Master Cat; or Puss in Boots by Charles PerraultKing: Rapunzel by the Brothers Grimm

Diamonds: Plays♦

Ace: The Alchemist by Ben JohnsonTwo: Agamemnon by AeschylusThree: King Lear by William ShakespeareFour: Medea By EuripidesFive: The Lysistrata by AristophanesSix: Othello by William ShakespeareSeven: Electra by SophoclesEight: The Frogs By AristophanesNine: The Love-Girl and the Innocent by Aleksandr SolzhenitsynTen: Prometheus Bound by AeschylusJack: Bartholomew Fair by Ben JohnsonQueen: A Month in the Country by Ivan TurgenevKing: Fortune's Fool by Ivan Turgenev

Spades: Short Stories

♠

Ace: The Queen of Spades by Aleksandr Pushkin

Two: The Cloak by Nikolai GogolThree: The District Doctor by Ivan TurgenevFour: The Death of Ivan Ilych by Leo TolstoyFive: Hide and Seek by Fyodor SologubSix: The Bet by Anton ChekovSeven: Poems in Prose by Ivan TurgenevEight: Lazarus by Leonid AndreyevNine: The Diary of a Superfluous Man by Ivan TurgenevTen: The Outrage by Aleksandr Kuprin Jack: One Autumn Night by Maxim GorkyQueen: Three Portraits by Ivan TurgenevKing: White Nights by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Clubs: Poetry♣

Ace: Hero and Leander by Christopher MarloweTwo: L'Allegro and Il Penseroso by John MiltonThree: Songs of Innocence by William BlakeFour: Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey by William WordsworthFive: Kubla Khan, This Lime-Tree Bower my Prison and Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor ColeridgeSix: Adonais by Percy Bysshe ShelleySeven: Ode; to Psyche, to a Nightingale, on Melancholy, on a Grecian Urn by John KeatsEight: The Lady of Shalott by Alfred TennysonNine: Hope, Remembrance and the Prisoner, A Fragment by Emily Bronte Ten: The Waste Land and the Hollow Men by T.S EliotJack: Twelve Songs by W.H AudenQueen: Ariel and Lady Lazarus by Sylvia PlathKing: Goblin Market by Christina Rossetti

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#Woolfalong: To the Lighthouse is one of my favourite books and Virginia Woolf is one of my favourite writers but I haven't read a lot of her work for some reason. I think I'm ready to dive into more of her writing so this challenge couldn't come at a better time. The books I'll be reading for this are:

I participated in this last year but I failed epically. I don't accept failure so here I am trying again. I love the different themes this year and I can't wait to get started. The books I'll be reading for this challenge are:

A Nineteenth Century Classic: Mansfield Park by Jane Austen

A Twentieth Century Classic: Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf

A classic by a woman author: Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

A classic in translation: Sketches From a Hunters Album by Ivan Turgenev

A classic by a non-white author: Arabian Nights by Unknown

An adventure classic: Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe

A fantasy, science fiction or dystopian classic: Lord of the Rings by J.R.R Tolkien

A classic detective novel: The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins

A classic which includes the name of the place in the title: The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte

A classic which has been banned or censored: The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli

Re-read a classic you read in high school or college: Othello by William Shakespeare

A volume of classic short stories: First Love and Other Stories by Ivan Turgenev

O at Behold the Stars is hosting Reading England again and although I won't officially state titles just yet I'm looking at reading a few novels written by English authors this year. Namely Defoe, Woolf, Dickens and the Brontes. I'll also be participating in O's Reading England Challenge by Reading London. The titles I'll be reading that are set in London are:

I really like your Deal Me In selections. One year I did a suit of Russian authors only, and it turned out to have some of my very favorites of the 250+ stories I've read so far in the five years doing this challenge. I was a Classics Minor in college so I also like a lot of your plays too. :-) Enjoy the challenge & happy reading!